Complete and unabridged, with 58 full-page plates by Willem van de Velde the Younger, Simon de Vlieger and Ludolf Bakhuizen. Cromwell's England, a buccaneer come home from the Caribbean with money nobody will ask about, and a household on the Essex coast keeping several secrets. Mrs Hall was known for her Irish sketches; this is one of her few English historical romances. This edition carries fifty-eight plates of maritime painting, among them works by Peter Monamy, Robert Robinson and Willem van de Velde the Younger, and one restored and coloured illustration.

Anna Maria Hall (1800-1881) was an Irish writer born in Dublin who published as Mrs S. C. Hall. She wrote sketches of Irish life, novels and children's books, edited magazines with her husband, and helped found the Hospital for Consumption and the Nightingale Fund. Her works include Sketches of Irish Character, The Buccaneer, and Marian.